Determination of the crystallinity of TiO2 photocatalysts

This study reports a new simple method to determine the crystallinity of anatase and rutile TiO2 photocatalysts. The crystallinity degree of various anatase and rutile samples was estimated by XRD analysis from the ratio among the full width at half maximum intensities of the main diffraction peaks of anatase or rutile and the (111) peak of CaF2 as internal standard. The photocatalytic activity of selected powders was tested employing the photodegradation of 4-nitrophenol in aqueous solution as probe reaction. The results showed that the photo-activity of the investigated samples increased with increasing crystallinity and crystallite size.